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The Rhetoric of Nineteenth Century British Anti-Vaccinators: an Interdisciplinary Movement of Medicine, Religion, Class, and Popular Culture" (2015)

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The Rhetoric of Nineteenth Century British Anti-Vaccinators: an Interdisciplinary Movement of Medicine, Religion, Class, and Popular Culture Wofford College Digital Commons @ Wofford Student Scholarship 5-15-2015 The Rhetoric of Nineteenth Century British Anti- Vaccinators: An Interdisciplinary Movement of Medicine, Religion, Class, and Popular Culture Madison P. Walter Wofford College Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/studentpubs Part of the European History Commons, and the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons Recommended Citation Walter, Madison P., "The Rhetoric of Nineteenth Century British Anti-Vaccinators: An Interdisciplinary Movement of Medicine, Religion, Class, and Popular Culture" (2015). Student Scholarship. Paper 8. http://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/studentpubs/8 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Wofford. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Wofford. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 The Rhetoric of Nineteenth Century British Anti-Vaccinators: An Interdisciplinary Movement of Medicine, Religion, Class, and Popular Culture Madison Walter Honors History Thesis Spring 2015 TIMELINE 1798: Edward Jenner publishes An Inquiry Into the Cause and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae 1840: First Vaccination Act providing free vaccinations for the poor and outlawing variolation 1853: Compulsory infant vaccination and punishment for defaulters 1867: Compulsory age requirement extended to 14 and cumulative penalties introduced 1889: Royal Commission formed to examine the effectiveness of vaccination 1896: Royal Commission report published in favor of the practice of vaccination, but opposing compulsory vaccination 1898: Conscientious objection clause allowing parents to apply for vaccination exemptions INTRODUCTION: HISTORICAL CONTEXT Recently, the topic of vaccination has captured attention in the media due to a measles outbreak originating at a Disney theme park in California. From January 1 2 to April 10, 2015, over 150 people from 18 states and the District of Columbia were reported to have measles. Almost all of these reported cases are part of a large, multi-state outbreak linked to the single Disney Park. The previous year also experienced a record number of measles cases. In 2014, there were 668 cases reported from 27 states.1 This is the greatest number of cases since measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. The reason for the recent outbreak is simply a failure to vaccinate. The majority of individuals who contracted measles were unvaccinated due to personal concern over the safety and effectiveness of vaccination. However, these worries are not new. Since the introduction of vaccination in 1796 by Edward Jenner, there has been a continuous debate regarding the practice of vaccination. The debate initially focused on ethical and religious opposition to vaccination, but quickly turned towards politics following the passing of compulsory vaccination laws in England in 1853. This politically charged debate regarding compulsion is what remains in the forefront of the minds of anti-vaccinators today. Does the government have the right to force vaccination upon its citizens? This project is not an examination of ethics or the role of the government, and therefore does not seek to answer this question. Rather, it will discuss the techniques employed by anti-vaccinators in nineteenth century England, who used politically and religiously charged language to construct their movement upon already existing social debates. Ultimately, anti-vaccinators were brilliant in their 1 Measles Cases and Outbreaks. (2015, February 23). Retrieved April 19, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html 3 maneuvers to convince British citizens to support their crusade. They used preexisting political infrastructure as the platform to argue for their cause, disputing state oversight and class oppression. Anti-vaccinators did not start from the ground up, but successfully built on what the public was already familiar with and integrated their message into well-known broader issues. Before discussing the anti-vaccination movement in detail, it is important to have a loose understanding of the laws enacted by the British government. The first major law was the Vaccination Act of 1840, which provided free and voluntary vaccinations for the poor and made variolation (inoculation only with human smallpox virus) illegal. Variolation was criminalized since the government feared, that it could contribute to the spread of smallpox due to the nature of the technique, which will be discussed later in detail.2 The Vaccination Act of 1853 made vaccination compulsory for all infants in the first three months of life and made defaulting parents liable to punishment in the form of fines or imprisonment. This law targeted children whose parents did not take advantage of the free vaccination services offered by the state. In response to this law, the Anti-Vaccination League was founded in London the same year and acted as a center for opponents of vaccination. The Vaccination Act of 1867 further extended the vaccination age requirement to 14 and added cumulative penalties for non-compliance. In response, the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League was founded the same year. The Vaccination Acts of 1853 and 1867 will be considered together simply as 2 Nadja Durbach. Bodily Matters: The Anti-Vaccination Movement in England, 1853- 1907 (Radical Perspectives. Duke University Press Books, 2004), 21. 4 compulsory vaccination for this discussion, as both provided a source of contention for the public about the role of the state. With England in great uproar over compulsory vaccination and its penalties, the state finally introduced a conscientious objection clause in 1898. This allowed individuals to obtain certificates of vaccination exemption by applying to a magistrate. This project is mainly concerned with the rhetoric of the anti-vaccination movement. It is in no way arguing that smallpox vaccination was ineffective, but seeks to understand why anti-vaccinators in England felt as such. Smallpox vaccination has been one of the most successful creations in medical history, with the disease successfully declared eradicated in 1980 due to global vaccination campaigns. When examining the historical context of the anti-vaccination movement, discourse of the pro-vaccination movement will be included when necessary to clarify the state of the debate.3 This paper will start with a broad overview of Edward Jenner’s introduction of vaccination and how it resulted in a debate among medical professionals regarding safety and effectiveness. A large part of the argument made by anti- vaccinationists focused on the disagreement among medical practitioners. If medicine was not in consensus regarding vaccination, then the government should not be allowed to force its citizens to vaccinate without complete confidence and agreement regarding the practice. 3 A great primary source outlining the pro-vaccination argument is The Works of Edward Jenner and Their Value in the Modern Study of Smallpox by George Dock. As a supporter of vaccination, Dock wrote this 1902 piece to praise Jenner. Another excellent source that provides a broad view of the anti-vaccination movement is Bodily Matters by Nadja Durbach. 5 Early medical arguments were followed by concerns regarding the use of both human and calf lymph. Jenner’s new method opened up the possibility for the transmission of numerous diseases if vaccination was incorrectly performed. Anti- vaccinators focused on this possibility, arguing that no form of vaccination could provide absolute certainty that disease was not transmitted. The most feared transmitted disease was syphilis, which led anti-vaccinators into the most contentious of issues regarding the relationship between religion and science. Religious arguments, this paper will assert, were some of the most profoundly terrifying of the anti-vaccinators. With the fate of the soul of both parent and child at stake, the choice to oppose vaccination seemed clear. To illustrate the effectiveness of religious opposition the arguments of Archdeacon Colley will be used. His words are among the most vehement of the religious anti-vaccinators. Following arguments about blood purity and religion (which continued throughout the nineteenth century movement), the focus shifted to issues of class. Middle class agitators started the political movement based on broader principles of individualism and liberty. Once the working class joined the movement, they focused more on class discrepancies and how the middle class was never prosecuted for failing to comply with vaccination laws. This division in ideas split the anti-vaccination movement politically, but the two classes finally merged regarding issues about parental rights. The final two pushes in the movement were the issues of sanitation and popular culture. The argument of sanitation versus vaccination was always present in the back of the minds of anti-vaccinators. However, it was not until the latter half 6 of the nineteenth century that real efforts were made to promote sanitation as opposed to vaccination. The town of Leicester served as a hot spot for this argument since it employed a method of compulsory quarantine to combat smallpox. While this debate was occurring, anti-vaccinators also linked their arguments to broader cultural phenomena of the time. Vaccinating medical practitioners were linked to vampires, especially following the publication
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